Transmission Gone Bye Bye

[rocket man]

Okay I located a transmission with transfer case yesterday in Salt Lake City from a crashed 1999 Trooper 2 w/TOD. I paid $400 for the pair and $150 shipping. It has 80K miles on it.

Seems like a lot of miles but considering mine has 162K on it, mileage wise its half as old as mine....now if it only works!! We'll see next week.

I have a mechanic friend who will do the install for 1/2 price ($300) book says its 6 1/2 hrs. r&r. I will help with the install.

I had an Aamco shop in the 70's and swore to myself I would never ever get that stinky ATF on me again. Yuck!! You sweat it out of your hands and fingers for days after!!

The Aamco package is a good deal. But , Aamco is pricey because they have a franchise fee and advertising pool equal to about 15% of gross (when I was with them, maybe more now). But there nationwide quarantee is there main strength and free towing. In my day we gave a "Car Ownership" guarantee but I guess they changed it to 4 years. What's the diff! If your going to have a tranny problem after a rebuild its gonna usually show up usually within 90 days. 80% of the "yoyo's" we had were leakers. Then about 10-15% were valve body, modulator, governor issues (electronic issues today probably), then 5-10% major component issues where we had to pull the unit out. Most would go bad in the first 6 months after the rebuild. I was in the biz for 5 years and can't recall a, "comeback" that was out there 4 years down the road. But $3800 ouch!!

I'll keep posted on future developments...

John

[rocket man]

Okay...Im on the road!!!.

Everything works perfect, after a few starts and stops... I will elaborate on later.

Thanks to "Wisdom's" searching the [url]http://carparts.com and steered me to this website which proved to be the most effective. Also As I reported, I purchased a 1999 trooper 2, tranny and transfer case. Other websites searched were: Pamsautoparts.com and Cherryautoparts.com. were good too. They were very helpful and polite. Many of the web-seller's on Carparts.com were bonfide jerk's. But this website, I think, is by far the largest dealing with wrecking yards from all over the country.

It took about 3 days transport time to have the tranny shipped to LA via truck freight transport from Salt Lake City. BTW... most of the wrecking yards will only drop at a business, (not a residence), and it needs to have a forklift or, at least, a rolling cherry picker. I had mine delivered to my sons work and he fork lifted the tranny onto the back of his truck, the shipping weight of the tranny and t/case is 275lbs. it came on a pallet.

Note: This carparts.com website has, at the time I searched over more than 150 compatable transmissions..that ranged in price from $1400 to $200. Most are tranmissions only..... but a large percentage is together with the transfer case. I was already having a problem with the speed sensors on the t/c of my Proton, so I was trying to solve two problems, which I ended up doing.

Once we got the tranny to the shop we pulled the oil pans (valve body and shift solenoid). It looked good the oil was clear and off/red in color but not burned. This means it may have overheated slightly at one time or another, but no signs of unusual wear. Also it was a "tear out", meaning that the cooler lines had been sawed off and bent over. Beware, of the transmissions that have been neatly disconnected from all there fittings!! These usually don't work!

After arrival, I decided to install a front converter housing seal as this is the only possible leaking area of this transmission that if there is a leak anywhere on that trans, that's the only place it would require pulling it out to fix. The install took about 3 hrs and that was with one of the koolest transmission jack's I have ever worked with...much different than in the old days...Note: This is not the type of transmission you install "on your back" with jack stands..suggest here, if you do that to separate the tranny and t/c for this. The right side exhaust is a real pain too. Other than that it was a pretty straight forward R&R.

The front seal was aftermarket and was about the same price as the OEM, but decided to use the after market as the dealer (Vista Ford, Woodland Hills, CA) did not stock it and would have to order it (5 days delay)....so in the aftermarket seal went!!! It was different in that it was a "press fit seal" with a metal outer, while the OEM was a presss fit too, the(French) was rubber clad inside and out and had a retainer washer that "bolted" the seal to the case. (never seen one like that before).

Anyway, in it went and we oiled it up and took it out for a test drive.....perfect from the instant we put it in reverse and through all the gears...transfer case operation was the same...PERFECT

Got it back to the shop and put it on a lift to double check the fluid level and then!!!!!!!!!

Yep...that lousy aftermarket converter seal was leaking pretty good..So out she came and a 5 day turnaround wait for the stock part to come in...which we installed last thursday. BTW... cut the install down to about a 1 3/4 hours...we were smokin, right side exhauset is still a pain the rump.

Total cost was $550 tranny/transfer case shipped+$350 (labor and oil, oil filter and pan gaskets)+ front oil seal $27.36 Grand Total $927.36...Also the issues I had with the "tight corner braking" went away along with the old transfer case.

Also for those of you wishing do this:......... the transmission/transfer case on the Vehicross 1999-2001 is the same creature as the 1999-2001 Trooper "2". Also when you search the yards they will post something along these lines: 1999 (or 2000, or 2001) troooper 2 trans/w410. The "410" is an abbreviated version of the OEM part # for the transfer case. In many cases they list the transmission but do not mention that it INCLUDES the t/c. As it was in my particular case. In my case I just picked out a transmission offered on the list and started calling from cheapest to most expensive...I made about 20 calls. On a couple guys I wanted to reach into the phone and rip there throat out Pure idiots, I forgot what they know about transmissions and it pisses me when they try to crank my chain and I'm sure they do this to others who they think are less informed.

Anyway...Also I think in 1998 they had the same trans with 2 transfer case options..one with "torgue on demand" and one without...which is where the "on/off" switches, I heard about came to pass (I think). Also, In many cases they will post the mileage of the vehicle they took the transmission out of too. Mine had 80K.

I was surprised to see that there were about 20 VX transmissions one on the site too...one had 26K miles on it, was a Proton with a cracked bell housing, they wanted about $1000K but no t/c. The guy that owns the yard is wise guy...He thinks he has "one of kind there"

I think I'm gonna close out this long winded report, but I will leave by telling you that I was struck, in my junk yard search, in finding hundreds!! of transmissions on the internet that fit our car!! AND STILL WORK!!! But less than 20 3.5L engines on this SAME site!! This is spooky!!! What happened to all those engines in front of all those transmissions??...Also they want about $2500-$3500 for the engines.....Price is usually driven by supply...which in this case appears to be pretty meager...

John

[VXIRONwoMAN]

Wow! Thanks for all this usefule info! I know where to go if/when my tranny goes. Great thread!

[Solitude]

I still got 60,000 miles and 4 years left on my 10/100,000 limited pwrtrain warenty from isuzu.. or 1 more year when isuzu pulls out.. whichever comes first

[WiSDoM]

I feel for you maqn it is a trouble feeling riding in another vehicle other than your Vx. Good Luck buddy!!!!:bgwp:

[rocket man]

Hey Thanks Wisdom...your got me onto that site.

BTW this trans actually runs better than the old one. The old one used to down shift a tad early with a noticable "clunk" on the propeller shafts, when you come up to a stop light...this one is as slick as cat's snot on an ice flow

So as they say, "I'm back in the saddle again"
and lovin it!!

John

[LittleBeast]

You are making me wish I had done the same. Especially since the VX has been in the shop for over 2 weeks now, because they failed to fix the trans leak from the coolant lines that I pointed out and had them"fix" the day I originally picked it up.

[Trudy Carp]

My parts guy @ Isuzu in Denver gave me the bad news last week. Seems their vehicle sales are in the toilet so they're pulling out. They will still maintain parts & warrenty work, but no new vehicle sales anymore. The only
profitable sector is the stuff they do for GM, Canyons, Colorados, Trailblazers, and DuraMax diesels. Their cargo delivery vehicles will still be sold through the Heavy truck dealers. So, Tynan's VW & Isuzu will eventually be called Tynan's VW & Isuzu Parts. Sad to see them go, but when they discontinued the Trooper & Rodeo it was only a matter of time.